How I discovered the ‘Voice of Israel’ [+Audio]

How I discovered Voice of Israel radio and rediscovered my precious friend Danny Seaman, valiant chief of the Government Press Office when we first met about ten years ago, one of the first and finest and onliest in the Israeli government bureaucracy to declare, without ever flinching, that the al Dura news broadcast is a hoax. Later Danny moved on to the Ministry of Public Diplomacy. That didn’t last too long.

In October, finally able to visit Israel after a two-year interruption, I had lunch with my cousin Bernie Kaminetsky and his wife Melanie from Boca Raton… in their Jerusalem apartment. Bernie gave me contact information for Jeremy Gimpel from Voice of Israel, a new English language radio station broadcasting from Jerusalem and beaming out to the world. I was booked for a program on October 20th.

I walk into the studios or more exactly rush in… about 5 minutes before the broadcast, start to meet staff, hold out the (illegible) taxi receipt (that’s another story… my friend S.N. convinced me that letting them pay for the taxi was good career strategy), and a voice behind my back says something about “…too cheap to pay for the taxi.” I turn. It’s Danny!

Big hugs . Danny: “I didn’t know it was you. They told me ‘a woman’ was going to be on the show with us today.” Me: “I didn’t know you were with Voice of Israel.”

With that we rushed into the studio and geared up for the show. My segment starts at around 26 minutes, but you’ll enjoy listening to the whole broadcast. The first half of my segment is with Danny. The second half with Bassam Eid.